It has been a long road, but the day has finally come; Legislative Bill 701, the "Water Bill," is finally being debated on the floor of the Legislature. LB701 has advanced from its first round of debate (General File) to the second round of debate (Select File), and will be debated again sometime this next week, the week of the 15th.

The first thing I would like to address is some misinformation regarding LB701. Many have felt this is a State issue created by the State, so let the State pay for it all. The State will pay the overages if Kansas takes us to court. The taxes in LB701 will be used to fund allowable projects to help with this year's compliance and future compliance with the three state compact; the local funds will not be used to pay off Kansas.

The second thing I would like to do is take this opportunity to explain the need for this bill. I would like to highlight the bottom line regarding this difficult issue. The bottom line is what happens to the district and the Republican River basin if we do nothing. The question is not whether we pay fines or not, it is whether we still have irrigation or all convert to dry land. Reality is, if we all convert to dry land, there will be less people in the basin.

For instance, dry land farmers farm two to three times the amount of land as an irrigator. This, in turn, will cut the number of people needed to farm and cut the number of children in our schools. This potential reduction in population could cause school mergers that otherwise would not have taken place, possibly hindering our efforts for economic development by making our communities in the basin less attractive.

In addition, the conversion from irrigated land to dry land farming would also cut the valuation of land potentially to a third of its previous value. This loss of revenue to the schools, counties, and cities would depress the economy in Southwest Nebraska, and most likely affect even other areas of the state.

If your wells are shut off, how do you keep your school open and appropriately funded? How do you keep businesses in your towns, let alone grow your local economy? Fewer people, fewer school kids, and fewer dollars for counties, schools, and businesses is not a good choice. The economic fall out for the district for doing nothing is too great a risk. There are many more problems that would arise from such a scenario and this is why I have been working so hard to find a solution to avoid it.

Be assured that I will continue to work hard during the rest of the debate on LB701 to give the district the best water bill I can get.

As always, I appreciate hearing from you. Please contact me with any questions or concerns.